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ENGLISH CORE-2014-15
Sample Paper -XII

S
General Instructions:
(i)This paper is divided into three
Sections: A, B &C. All the sections are
compulsory.
(ii)Separate instructions are given with
each section and question, wherever
necessary. Read these instructions very
carefully and follow them faithfully.
(iii)Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
SECTION A (READING)

(30 Marks)

Q.1.Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

(6)

1. In this jet age, everyone is interested in making easy money. Thanks to the advancement in
science and technology, these days life has become more easy and comfortable than earlier with
a lot of domestic gadgets as well as instantaneous food recipes available in the market. This has
resulted in making the people develop a mind-set to have anything immediately without waiting
for even at the traffic signals.
2. A piano teacher described an interesting encounter she had with a young lady who came to
inquire about music lessons. The young lady asked her, How long will this course take? My
father tells me that it is fashion now to be able to play musical instruments and that I should
learn one quickly. I want something that will be quick, fast and easy like, like .. When the
amused teacher explained that it would take a lifetime of meticulous practice to learn music,
her face fell and, needless to say, she never came back.
3. The single most important factor that distinguishes those of us who succeed in any venture
from those of us who dont is this instant coffee attitude. Most of us want results quickly. We
want to reach the top immediately and get worked up when things go wrong. Perseverance and
patience are forgotten words. We get upset, frustrated and angry when a skill or activity
requires us to put in a lot of effort and time. We get dejected and want to give it up. Things
should be easy. Why should things take long? It is unfair.
4. Life is too short and there is not enough time to do all the things we want to. We tend to
compare with others and get upset when they seem to be doing well- dismissing their

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achievement as pure luck or think that they have support, help, approach . That God is
being too kind to them and not to us. And so we give up.
5. But such thinking serves no purpose. For it doesnt solve the problem. Life is tough for those
with the instant coffee attitude.
6. Success, real success and happiness come to those who have a bread-making attitude.
Those who are willing to knead the dough,wait for hours for it to rise only to punch it down and
knead some more, wait for another couple of hours for it to rise again, then bake it before it is
ready to be eaten. Nothing is instantaneous. For every endeavourwhether in the area of career,
academics, music, sports, relationship, physical fitness or even in spirituality-it is a long
arduous journey.
7. Only if we are willing to spend time, put in painstaking effort and have faith, can we get
results. If we dont accept this difficult but true fact of life, our lives will be far from being
happy and fulfilling. For we may not make that extra effort which can change the course of life
dramatically, for our benefit.
8. I often come across clients who have changed their doctors and do that even after they have
spoken to me-because they are on the lookout for a doctor who will instantly give them relief
from their problems. One who will ensure that by the time they reach home from the clinic they
will have wonderfully fulfilling relationships with their families. No wonder, most of us get
bitter and disillusioned with life and ourselves and look for escape routes which seem to
promise quick results.
Choose the most appropriate options out of the ones given below:
a. When the young lady went to the music teacher and asked him how long it would take to
learn music, he replied
(i)
six months
(ii)
a year
(iii) a lifetime
(iv) four weeks
b. When an activity requires us to put in a lot of effort and time, we
get..
(i)
irritated
(ii)
dejected
(iii) upset, frustrated and angry
(iv) discouraged
c. When we compare ourselves with the others who are prosperous, we
(i)
become jealous ofthem
(ii)
get upset
(iii) blame ourselves

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(iv) praise them
d. Our life will be full of happiness if we.
(i)
trust in God
(ii)
make prolonged efforts
(iii) avoid difficult activities
(iv) depend on our luck
e. Many patients look out for a doctor who
(i)
charges a nominal fee
(ii)
can give them quick relief
(iii) should listen to their problems politely
(iv) should listen to their problems patiently
f. The word ardous in PARA 6 means.
(i)
difficult
(ii)
strenuous
(iii) complex
(iv) energetic

Q.2. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

(16)

(1)The first thing I after getting up in the morning is to go for an hour of walk in one of the well
known gardens of my city. For my walk, I take along either my transistor to listen to the news
or an audio CD or an audio tape to listen to discourse or an audio book.
(2) Its the best hour of my day. I cannot do without it. Nor can I do without the garden where
Igo to walk daily. Through this piece I am inviting you to walk with me and see what I do,
almost daily.
(3) As I near my garden I wade through the tightly parked cars and motor cycles to enter the garden.
This is when just a few yards away there is an earmarked parking lot. I slip through the narrow spaces
between cars and enter. As I step into the garden, instead of the fresh air from the trees, or the fragrance
of flowers I get the stench of the toilet, which is right at the entrance. I have to block my nose and move
on fast.
(4) Now I am on the walkway. It is made of red Kota stone slabs. It is well- used and merges with the
colour of the soil and does not irritate the eye. I now switch on my listening device which I carried with
me to hear the news/ discourse/ music and try to be onmy own. But I stay alert. For I have to be careful
that I do not step on the excreta of the Labrdors left right in the middle of the walkway.
(5) Overseas, I have seen the dog walkers carry disposable gloves and carry bags to lift and remove
their dog shit. They dare not leave it for others to step over. They would be fined a few hundred dollars.
(6) I move onI meet familiar faces. They do not disturb me for they know I like my walk by
myself. But I hear loud collective laughters, or elongated HariOms .. or loud group talks

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.all done by people as if this was their own space on which they alone had the right. They are not
concerned about others space and quietitude. I increase the volume of my electronic device in my ear
phone and pass by.
(7) I am now on to a quieter patch. It is greener and cooler. For it is at a height with more trees and
shrubs. I pass by a recently started garden restaurant. It plays the FM radio fairly loud to attract tea
drinkers but no one comes at this time anyway.
(8) I now walk into cleaner portions. I swing around my arms to exercise my backbone. I now walk
down the slope. I hope that this clean one will last for a while. It does not.
(9) On the foot of the slope is a big garbage dump of a neighbouring stadium. As if it is their
backyard.It is not their concern that the dump is on the path that morning walkers in their neighbouring
garden take.
(10) Not only this, I occasionally also get company from a few stray dogs who walk along, or even
block my way.I let them be, for it is also their space, I realise peaceful existence in safest in that
situation. And who knows I may be intruding into their space.Hence I better be quiet and avoid
troubling them.
(11) I walk on. I now come closer to a large playground. I find boys, (sorry, no girls), playing cricket.
And there is more than one group. All playing side by side! Perhaps catching or hitting each others
balls unknowingly. All hitting as if they are all Dhonis Great fun, but only till the ball does not
come any direction and hit me. I have narrowly escaped it a number of times. But my mother could not.
She was badly hit once on her temple. Her eye narrowly escaped serious injury.
(12) As the school holiday season sets in, all possible empty spaces of this city garden become cricket
grounds with tree trunks as stumps. Try even walking on the grass overseas, you will be fined heavily.
You have to stay off the grass. Here it is the opposite! True Democracy.

(i) Answer the following questions:

(a) What does the author do every day in the morning?
(b) What does the author carry along with her when she goes out for a walk?
(c) Why does the author have to block her nose as she enters the garden?
(d) Why has the author to be alert while walking?
(e) What had the author observed about the dog walkers in the other countries?
(f) What does the author say about the quieter patch?
(g) What does the author find on the foot of the slope?
(h) Why does the author allow the stray dogs to block her way?
(i) How was the authors mother hit on her temple?
(j) What happens to empty spaces of the city garden during school holidays?
(ii). Decoding, analysing and interpreting the word:
(a) Decode the phrase Collective laughters (Para 1)

(10)

(3)

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(b) Interpret the phrase
Peaceful co-existence (Para 10)
(c) Analyse the expression
True Democracy
(iii) Find words from the passage which the same as the following:

(3)

(i) lecture (Para 1)

(ii) which can be thrown away after use (Para 5)
(iii) sometimes but not often (Para 10)
Q.3.Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

(8)

The goal of the G8 countries outlined at the Hokkaido Toyako summit to reduce by half
Greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is a woefully inadequate response to a grave
environmental crisis. The scientific community has been hoping to see strong action on
emissions over the next two decades and its consensus is stated unequivocally in the
Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The data
show that the time for pious statements is long past. To avoid tipping points that could
produce sudden shifts in climate, the world now expects the major emitters to engage in
concrete action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and to fund mitigation and
adaptation actions in vulnerable countries. Newly emerging economies including India
are responsible for a significant level of current greenhouse gas emissions, but the
primary responsibility for carbon dioxide already in the air, which is warming the earth,
belongs to the legacy polluters. National carbon emissions travel around the globe in a
matter of days, and as the Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow has pointed out, create an
externality that is truly global in scale. If the G8 countries, led by the United States, are
indeed serious about mitigating climate change, they must deliver on their promises
between now and 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol ends. They need to work with utmost
urgency to cut their own emissions from a meaningful baseline.
India is a member of the group of major economies and its emissions, although low per
capita, are now globally scrutinised. By credible estimates, the country exceeded
absolute annual emissions of Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom in 2007. Among
the top eight emitting nations, it had a significantly high coal fraction in total carbon
dioxide. Moreover, automotive emissions are growing steadily. Given the vulnerability
of millions of livelihoods, particularly of the poor, to climate change, it would be
extremely short-sighted of India to counter pose development and action on reducing
GHG emissions. Now that it is part of the Hokkaido Toyako declaration on energy
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security and climate change, business as usual is not an option and energy intensity of the
economy has to be reduced. It is time to kick-start the national action plan on climate
change and set quantitative targets for sectors, such as coal-based power plants, that need
to be cleaned up. With aid available from the G8 under the UN Nairobi Work
Programme on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, a strong
governance structure for adaptation can be set up. But the first priority must be to assess
the national and sector-specific options to reduce emissions, and to achieve sustainable
growth before the successor to the Kyoto Protocol takes over.
(a) On the basis of your reading of the passage, make notes on it using recognisable
abbreviations wherever necessary (Min 4) use a suitable format. Supply an
appropriate title.
5
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
3
SECTION B(WRITING)

(30 Marks)

4. (a). Draft an invitation about a literary seminar in your school. (Word limit: 50) The seminar is being
organized by the Literary Association. You are Sumit or Shyama,the Secretary of the association.
OR
(b) Balwinder Singh is selling his old study material for AIEEE preparation. Draft an advertisement for
him in not more than 50 words. (4)
5. (a)After your 10+2 examination, You wish to join a foreign university for an under graduate course
ofyour choice. You have already applied to the university which has asked foryour transcripts of class 9
to 11 from your school alongwith a letter of recommendation from the principal of your school. Write
an application to the principal requestingforthe transcripts and a letter of recommendation tobe sent
directly to the university. Do mention the university and the course you wish to join. (Word limit: 100120)
OR
(b)UTI Bank, 17, Nariman Point, Mumbai is inviting applications from young graduates to workers
Public Relation Officers in their branches spread throughout India. The bank is offering handsome
salary to freshers who have excellent command over English. Write an application to the manager
(Human Resources) offering your service. Your application should contain a covering letter and a
separate resume. (Word limit: 100-120)
(6)

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6. (a) Nation Without Barriers- An organization which promotes national unity and communal
harmony, has invited entries for an article writing competition on the topic Meaning of Communal
Harmony. As Hemant/ Hemantika, a student ofclass 12 of Bal Bharti Public School, write the article
in not more than 200 words as your entry for thecompetition
OR
(b) In the recent held elections to the Lok Sabha only a small number of women could get elected as
members of the Parliament. In view of this situation write an article in about 200 words on the
reservation of seats for women in the Parliament.
(10)
7. (a) Consider this- more and more parents are working these days; internet has invaded our lives;
cyber cafes have come up at every nook and corner. Suddenly kids have an unchecked and free excess
to sex and pornography on the net. Sociologists, parents and teachers just dont know what to do. Write
the speech in about 200 words on the topic Menace of online sex and pornography to be delivered in
morning assembly.
OR
(b) Parents committing female infanticide deserve death penalty. Express your views either for or
against thee statement in about 200 words. (10)

SECTION C (LITERATURE)

(40Marks)

Q.8. Read the following extract and answer the question given below:

(4)

(a) Break O break open till they break the town

And show the children to green fields, and make their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white and green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the Sun.
(i)To whom does they refer?
(ii)What would they break?
(iii)What other freedom should they enjoy?
(iv)Who, according to the poet, can create history?
OR

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(b)

When aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
(i) What will the terrified hands reveal?
(ii)What do you know of Aunt Jennifers married life?
(iii)Where did Aunt Jennifer make the tigers and how would they behave?
(iv)What do the tigers reveal about Aunt Jennifer?

Q.9. Answer any four of the following.

(4x3=12)
(a) Why is Raj Kumar Shukla described as being resolute (Indigo)?
(b) What is the significance of the images, sprinting trees and merry children spilling out of
their homes in the poem My Mother at Sixty-Six?
(c) How does the poem highlight the poets immense faith in the Divine (The Thing of Beauty)?
(d) Why did the Maharaja and the dewan of the State decide to send gifts of expensive diamond
rings to the duraisani?
(e) Why in your opinion is the smell of roses obnoxious for the Skunks mother?
Q.10. Answer any one of the following:
(6)
(a) While hatred against a member of the enemy race is justifiable, especially during wartime,
what makes a human being rise above narrow prejudices?
(b) Shocked by Evans final escape, write an article for a newspaper highlighting the need of
enhanced vigilance over the antisocial elements in as well as outside the prison premises.
Suggest practical measures also.
Q.11. Answer any one of the following:
(6)
(a) Go to school, I say glibly, realising immediately how the advice must sound. There is no
school in my neighbourhood. When they build one, I will go.
Why does Anees Jung advise Saheb to go to school? Who do you think they refer to here?
What values can we learn as members of our society from this conversation?
(b) Jansie is much concerned about Sophies dreams. She strongly feels that she should not
think this way. On reaching home she expresses her concerns and worries in her diary. Write
her diary entry.
Q.12. Dr. Kempis also a scientist, but he is different from Griffin. Compare the characters of
Griffin and Dr. Kempby quoting support from the text.
(6)
Q.13. Write a short note on the theme of isolation in the novel The Invisible Man.
(6)
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